Meet New Zealand’s Youth America’s Cup Team
The NZL Sailing Team are the defending Red Bull Youth America’s Cup champions, having won the inaugural regatta in San Francisco, USA in 2013. The team’s lineup for 2017 is a well-rounded mix of sailors from Olympic classes, keelboats and catamarans who have won world and national titles. The youth team is racing with guidance from America’s Cup team Emirates Team New Zealand.
The collaboration is particularly inspirational because Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, who are helmsman and trimmer for Emirates Team New Zealand in the 2017 America’s Cup and also won Gold at the 2016 Olympics, were previously participants in the inaugural Red Bull Youth America’s Cup themselves – on the victorious NZL Sailing Team.
Logan Dunning Beck [skipper], 23, is the skipper of the NZL Sailing Team. His career highlights include winning the 49er class at the Melbourne World Cup in 2015 and the Weymouth World Cup in 2016. Logan started sailing with his father in a small dinghy when he was very young, and progressed through Optimist, 420 and 29er classes before taking on his current speciality of the 49ers. He thrives on fast-paced racing and is keen to sail an AC45F in competition in the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup. Logan complements his sailing with mechanical engineering studies at the University of Auckland.
Luca Brown Born in 1993, Luca Brown has developed expertise in a diverse range of sailing classes. He was a member of New Zealand’s Optimist team for the World Championships, competed in the GC32 Extreme Series, has experience with the TP52, and was selected for the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s performance program. The Auckland residentis also a qualified structural engineer [he holds a bachelor of engineering degree, with honors, from the University of Canterbury] and played rugby on Canterbury’s U18 and U20 teams.
Stewart Dodson Twenty-three-year-old Stewart Dodson won the 2016 World Match Racing Tour with Robertson Racing, took third place in the Extreme Sailing Series in both 2015 and 2016 with Red Bull Sailing, and earned six national championships. Stewart was also part of the Full Metal Jacket team from New Zealand that sailed to second place in 2013’s inaugural Red Bull Youth America’s Cup. Stewart’s sailing career began on the Optimist and then 29ers, and he was part of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron Youth Training Programme.
Harry Hull has spent the last six years sailing on New Zealand’s fastest racing yacht, the ORMA 60 Team Vodafone Sailing, gaining multiple inshore and offshore sailing speed records. Early in his career, Harry raced the 29er, then joined the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s Youth Training Programme to learn match racing and keelboat sailing, earning first place in the New Zealand Match Racing Nationals. The 23-year-old has also spent the last year learning how to race foiling catamarans on the Frank Racing GC32. Harry is pursuing business studies at the University of Auckland.
Matthew Kempkers is a Laser Radial Youth National Champion who currently races in the Laser Standard class. After starting out in the Optimist, Starling and Laser, “Kempy” joined the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron Youth Training Programme. His other career highlights include second place at the New Zealander Laser Nationals in 2016, and fifth place at both the New Zealand National Open Match Racing Championships and the New Zealand edition of Red Bull Foiling Generation. Matthew holds a degree in computer science and information systems from the University of Auckland.
Isaac McHardie Auckland resident Isaac McHardie is a professional sailor specializing in the 49er class. Born in 1997, Isaac has earned career highlights including winning the SL26 ISAF Youth World Championship in 2013 and placing third at the 29er ISAF Youth Worlds in 2014. His biggest goal is to compete in the Olympics.
Josh Salthouse Auckland-based sailor and marine electrician Josh Salthouse is a two-time New Zealand Match Racing Champion [2015, 2016], who was also part of the team that won the Warren Jones International Championship in 2015, and he finished sixth at the Sydney stop of the Extreme Sailing Series last season. “Salty” sails out of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and takes part in its performance program, racing on foiling Nacra 20s. His dream is to race around the world and also to defend the America‘s Cup in Auckland in 2021.
Micah Wilkinson Just 21 years old, Micah Wilkinson is the reigning Nacra 17 Under-23 World Champion and Red Bull Foiling Generation World Final champion. A Cambridge native currently based in Auckland, he also won the ISAF Youth Worlds in 2013 and finished second in the Sir Edmund Hillary Adventure Racing Challenge in the same year. In addition to sailing full time, Micah continues to pursue the engineering and business studies he has begun at Auckland University of Technology and Massey University.
